1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices and structures for displaying retail merchandise and, more specifically, to merchandise display rack systems, including various shelving, racking, or other merchandise-supporting structures.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In many retail environments, an entire aisle, e.g., the entire lengths of two display racks that face each other on opposing sides of a retail store aisle, is filled with merchandise from a single manufacturer or sold under the same brand. In other words, in some retail environments, a single company's product(s) can occupy a relatively large portion of an aisle or even fill one or more aisles in their entireties.
However, even when a single company's products occupy a substantial portion of an aisle in a store or other retail environment, the ability to display such products and convey, e.g., branding information, is limited by the physical size of the display racks provided by the particular store. In other words, a sales representative for a company that sells product and displays product in a store must advertise or convey other brand-related information within the confines of the display racks themselves, or any ancillary aisle endcap space permitted by the store. By limiting displays of branding information to the physical size of the display racks of a particular establishment, only patrons or pedestrian consumers that can view the aisle endcaps or those that are actually standing in or walking down the aisle can see the branding information.
Typical display racks can be largely standardized and can look objectively plain or neutral in appearance. This can be beneficial to ensure that the display racks do not themselves distract from the merchandise supported thereupon. Furthermore, non-neutral appearing display racks might showcase or present certain merchandise well, while the same non-neutral appearing display racks might not showcase or present other merchandise as well.
Therefore, it could prove desirable to provide structural displays for use in a retail environment that can display branding or trademark information in a manner that is visually conspicuous to patrons or pedestrian consumers that are displaced from a particular aisle that stores corresponding merchandise. For example, it could be desirable to allow patrons in an adjacent aisle to see branding information that is placed at a height that is above the display racks. It could also prove desirable to provide truss assemblies as structural displays that are mounted overhead, spanning over an aisle, that are aesthetically agreeable and visually conspicuous.
It could further prove desirable to provide trusses that can be retrofit and temporarily mounted to existing display racks. The trusses may have connector assemblies that allow variable mounting widths for the trusses, facilitating mounting the trusses over aisles having differing widths or a single aisle with a non-uniform width along its length.
It could provide desirable for the connector assemblies to include a captured plate that can slide within a horizontal truss member, and an insert assembly that extends into a supporting display rack. The captured plate and insert assembly may be movable toward each other so that they clamp the horizontal truss member therebetween for temporarily fixing the connector assembly in location upon the truss.